Monday, May 10, 2010

Us V. Canada (Done)

Wow, an hour and 13 minutes have passed, and we're only through two. I will update below, every two innings-ish.

First of all, I am pissed at Don and Remy on that double off the top of the wall. I admit, my first thought was "ball bounces up, it HAD to have hit ledge." But the side replay showed that all that happened was that the ball hit the very top edge of the wall, and bounced up and back to the field. Great call by the ump, and great job confirming it. However, Don and Rem were for some reason convinced that their eyes were lying to them after seeing the definitive side angle. I was getting really mad that maybe the umps were watching NESN's replays and being influenced in them saying "clearly a home run" when it was clearly not a home run. So why, on the straight-on angle, did it appear the ball did the little bump-bump which implies (had we not seen the side angle) that it hit top of wall, then ledge? Well, that's a tin piece up there and I'd say as the ball hit it, it didn't just bounce back like it would have off concrete. The tin gave a little as the ball first made contact, then as the impact was fully made off tin plus the wall underneath, the ball changed direction ever-so slightly. Here's a pic I took in '08 showing you the front and top of the Monster.

It's crazy how you can go from agony to ecstasy in two seconds, as we did on Vik-E Mart's DP ball that Hill did errin' on. Who'd he hit in the dugout, by the way? Farrell? Thanks in part to that play, we are now up 6-4 after 2.

And Beltre with his usual basepath-psychopath routine, not sliding into second on an inning-ending force. It's like he doesn't wanna slide. Likes to hustle, yet doesn't wanna get dirty. Weird. The time it took me to write that --whoa, another botched, would have been end of inning DP by the Jays! So we're still alive in bottom 3. So I'll keep it right here... and my pics from Ma's Day at Fen Way will come late tonight...Pedroia base hit and it's 7-4! Sweeeet. I will update after 3, 6, and 9. ... Victor pops out....it's up to Youk...and he Ks. 7-4 us after 3 innings and 1 hour 30 minutes.

9:30: Well Peter Brady did great in those three innings--except when he was giving up 2-run dongs. 7-6 us after 6, Oki coming in.

Why did Scutaro take three extra steps before throwing to first? Good thing that E didn't cost us.

Funny when Wake stole RamRam's hand warmer. In the background you could see the "Poop Deck" sign.

Youk didn't run at first on a grounder to third down the line. Absolutely would have cost him had the thrown not gone over the first baseman's head. Yet the scorer gave him the least deserved base hit in history.

Oki puts the side down in order. Stretch time at Fenway, 7-6 us.

10:18: We win. 7-6. The first two innings took over an hour. The final 6.5 took two. Yes-Holds Barred and a Pap save.

Two very nice catches by JVE tonight, the second one easily topping Jeter's "famous" catch. Why easily? Because Jeter's wasn't very good. It is impressive when you catch a ball running blindly toward a wall and then you immediately hit that wall and fall over it. It's not impressive to catch a ball, then run toward a wall and decide to dive over it when you had several other options. What Remy/Don ignored on that play was how Pedroia was right there holding up his glove trying to get JVE to give him the ball so he could get it in if the runner tried tagging and moving up. It was not needed as JVE got up quickly (without taking time to smear those ketchup packets on his face first.) Hey, if Joe Torre can say our blood is fake, I'll say whatever the hell I want. Actually, I will anyway. Stupid Jeter.

Saw an article by William C. Rhoden called "Red Sox out of race in early May, Yankees therefore need new rival." Or something like that. Don't even try to find it. Six out with 130 to play--yeah, we're done, William. It's amazing how even newspaper reporters these days are doing the "I only know what I've in the last few days or in some cases minutes" thing that's usually reserved for fans. These people should be fired immediately. I didn't see him writing an article called "Mark Teixeira with Historic Drop-Off, Hitting Under .200 in 2010." I checked his archives to see that classic template article every Yankee-loving newspaper idiot had planned for 86 years called, what was it, oh yeah, "Red Sox finally win and it's the worst thing for them." Yeah, we're such fuckin' losers with this "winning" we do. I also saw the other classic about the Red Sox "becoming the Yankees." In other words, "things Yankee fans say to attempt to make the Red Sox feel bad when they LOSE to us." Here's a secret: sports fan WANT their team to win. I want the Red Sox to beat the Yankees over and over and over until they die. Are we clear? Okay.

I also thought it hit right on the "fold" where the top of the wall becomes the shelf. But it took 3 or 4 replays on the Jays broadcast from the LF camera -- the guy way up by the pole and with the Cask behind him -- before I could see it hit the back of the ledge and carom back.

Call could have gone either way, but I'd say Seabass donged and the umps blew it. Considering how the inning went, we should have taken the "rally killer".

No NESN. Total blackout. (Tho maybe MLBTV would have it archived.) The two angles I saw were very tough to call - I couldn't see getting pissed either way the umps went, but from what I saw -- and it took many replays -- I changed my mind and said "dong".